Roy Moore’s Campaign Borrows A Page From Trump’s Anti-Media Playbook

The besieged candidate’s rhetoric against the media appears to have inspired a staffer.

A campaign staffer for Alabama Senate GOP candidate Roy Moore aggressively confronted a cameraman outside a rally on Monday, following an anti-media blueprint that helped President Donald Trump win the White House, The Hill reported.

In a video clip of the incident, the staffer, identified as Tony Goolsby, is heard yelling “Go now!” and tries to grab the camera, as another man appears to confront a different person holding a camera. Connor Sheets, a reporter for The Birmingham News, tweeted the video.

Moore’s camp has been at war with the media since The Washington Post published the story of a woman who alleged that she had sexual encounters with the former judge when she was 14 years old and he was 32. Several other women have come forward to make similar claims against Moore. Consequently, the Republican candidate’s poll numbers have plummeted, and he’s now in a tight race for a U.S. Senate seat against his Democratic rival Douge Jones. Moore has denied the allegations, accusing his political enemies of a smear campaign and The Post of publishing fake news. Some of his staffers have voiced the same anti-media views.

During Trump’s campaign, he repeatedly accused the media of publishing fake news and encouraged his supporters to confront reporters and protesters at his rallies. In April, a federal judge threw out Trump’s free speech defense against a lawsuit that claimed he provoked violence against protesters at one of his rallies. Earlier this year, Montana’s GOP Rep. Greg Gianforte also borrowed a page from Trump’s playbook when he body slammed a reporter during his congressional campaign. He was charged with misdemeanor assault but won the race anyway.